Departure
99%
vs 95% ▲ 3
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Jimmy Carter Regional Airport, formerly Souther Field, lies four miles northeast of Americus, Georgia, and is one of the most historically resonant general aviation fields in the American South, best remembered as the place where a young Charles Lindbergh bought his first aeroplane and taught himself to fly. Today it is a quiet, uncontrolled public airport serving general aviation traffic in Sumter County, with a long instrument runway and a shorter crosswind strip.
Jimmy Carter Regional Airport, known for most of its history as Souther Field, sits four miles northeast of the centre of Americus in Sumter County, Georgia. It is a publicly owned general aviation field with a notable aviation heritage, having begun life as a First World War Army Air Service training camp, and it later became famous as the place where Charles Lindbergh purchased and learned to fly his first aircraft. The airport was renamed in honour of Jimmy Carter in 2009, reflecting its proximity to the former president's home town of Plains.
The airport lies in uncontrolled airspace and operates as an uncontrolled field, meaning pilots are not required to communicate with any ground or tower facility before landing or departing. It is located four miles northeast of downtown Americus, Georgia, within Sumter County, on 378 acres of land. Atlanta Approach/Departure provides an approach and departure service on 125.5 MHz for aircraft operating to and from the field.
The airport has two physical runways. Runway 05/23 is 6,009 feet long with a hard surface and is lit; runway 23 is equipped with an ILS approach. Runway 10/28 is 3,782 feet long, also with a hard surface, and is not lit.
Atlanta Approach/Departure can be reached on 125.5 MHz. The field has an AWOS-3 automated weather observing system on 128.375 MHz. A clearance delivery frequency is published on 119.95 MHz. CTAF/UNICOM operations are conducted on 122.8 MHz. An ILS approach is available to runway 23.
Jimmy Carter Regional is an uncontrolled airfield, so there is no requirement for pilots to communicate with any ground station, although use of the CTAF/UNICOM frequency of 122.8 MHz for traffic advisories is customary practice at fields of this type.
The airport lies four miles northeast of the Americus central business district. South Georgia Technical College occupies part of the historic Souther Field site opposite the modern airport, separated by a stand of trees, and retains two surviving Second World War-era hangars and a wartime concrete apron now used for campus parking, useful ground references when navigating toward the field. The Lindbergh Monument, including a bronze statue of Charles Lindbergh, stands at the airport and marks the site's connection to his historic solo flight training.
Souther Field was established in January 1918 when the War Department leased 407 acres north of Americus from Sumter County for a primary pilot training airfield and aviation supply depot, one of thirty-two Air Service training camps created after American entry into the First World War. It was named for Major Henry Souther, an aviation engineer killed in the line of duty at Fort Monroe. After the war the field was deactivated and its surplus Jenny aircraft sold off; in May 1923 Charles Lindbergh bought one of these Jennies for 500 dollars and spent a week practising there before setting off on his barnstorming career, several years before his transatlantic flight. Sumter County purchased the property in 1928, and in 1938 William J. Graham established a Contract Pilot School for the Army Air Corps at the site through his Graham Aviation Company. The Army deactivated Souther Field at the end of the Second World War and deeded the land to Americus, after which part of the site became South Georgia Trade and Vocational School, later South Georgia Technical College, in 1948. Two Second World War hangars and the original 1918 warehouse survive near the college campus. In 1978 Griffin Bell presented a memorial plaque commemorating Lindbergh's 1927 transatlantic flight, and in 1992 a bronze statue of Lindbergh was dedicated as part of the airport's Lindbergh Monument; Americus also held a public Lindbergh Days festival in 1985. The airport was renamed Jimmy Carter Regional Airport in October 2009 following a joint proposal by the Sumter County Board of Commissioners and Americus City Council.
The airport continues as an active general aviation field with 28 based single-engine aircraft and around 8,500 annual aircraft operations, the great majority general aviation with a small proportion of military traffic. It has been continuously operated since the First World War and remains an uncontrolled airfield. The field hosts an annual festival, the Lindbergh Boogie, reflecting its historic ties to Charles Lindbergh, and has attracted a range of notable visitors over the years given its proximity to Jimmy Carter's home town of Plains.
